What is Linux?

What is Linux?

Linux is the name for a
Unix-like kernel created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 as an alternative to
the expensive and complex Unix operating system and a modular
alternative to Minix. This was to enable application development of Unix
applications on a small personal computer. It is now used in the
smallest of embedded computers, music and video consumer items, mobile
phones through to the largest supercomputers. It is typically found in
servers where its performance and stability earns a strong reputation.
With new low-cost laptops and new wave of experimental users, Linux
based systems are finding their way on to more desktops.

How do I say it?

In
the UK, the letter "i" is typically short (as "in") where as in the USA
it is longer (as "eye"). Due to many UK users hearing the word from the
states, it is frequently pronounced L(y)nux. It must be pointed out
that Linus is from Finland where the "i" is pronounced "ee" so probably
the _correct_ pronounciation is L(ee)nux.

A brief history of Unix and Linux

In
1969, the birth year of Linus Torvalds, Unix was developed at Bell
Labs, NJ, USA by AT&T employees along with many other significant
developments over the years. The original developers were engaged with
previous systems including Multics nearly a decade earlier.The
design of Unix was based around a modular extensible computer operating
system enabling many users to operate a single machine. The 1970's saw many advances of Unix which shaped almost all operating systems produced since.Unix was commercially focussed and typically operated in large organisations, government and the academic world.

A
significant factor in the life of Linux was the GNU project in 1983
created by Richard Stallman. This was intended to be a free unix-like
operating system and was mostly complete with a kernel and applications
but did not attract enough support at the time to gain ground. Typical
Linux distributions are based on a Linux kernel and GNU applications. It
is argued that GNU should be stated when the operating system is
discussed to ensure recognition is made to the fact that Linux is just
the kernel. On this basis, the correct term is GNU/Linux.

Linux
was an accidental revolution, Linus never intended to create a program
that would become known world wide and in his original note advising the
first release, he was clear that this is unlikely to be more than a
program to facilitate testing of other applications and "won't be big".

Variants of Unix

Unix has many variants. These are known as *nix or Unix-like operating systems. Some examples:

Minix

Linux

GNU

Plan 9

BSD

Hard times for Linux

Linux
has had its fair share of issues with internal disputes, ownership
arguments and technical flaws. Due to the huge support, these attract
large intellectual investment and solutions are typically thorough and
swift.

2038 - the end of time?

Unix and its
relations store internal time as the number of seconds from midnight,
January 1st 1970 (The Epoch). The variable can only store enough
information to count this to January 19, 2038. The effect of this is
that dates beyond 2038 may reset to 1901!

Most, if not all modern
Unix and Unix-like systems have been fixed by creating a larger variable
which will defer this problem for nearly 300 billion years which should
be enough for most of us.

Legal complications

In
2003, the SCO group attempted to asert ownership of components of Unix
and Linux. It demanded that large users pay a license fee, The battle
involved many big names and big risks including the announcement that
IBM would be sued for $5 billion and DaimlerChrysler were challenged to
pay for their use of the software. Novell and Redhat were also involved
with the cases.Ultimately, SCO failed to prove wrongdoing and
subsequently filed for bankrupcy.